What is wrong with Derozan?

[carl_english]

Looks like he's trying not to press the issue and is playing a more passive game as a result. He was getting hacked like crazy, turning the ball over, and forcing his offense. I think he's trying to let the game come to him but it's not really working for him. I thought he played decent defense on Kobe today, when they were matched up. He's grabbing rebounds, making decent passes here and there, and hitting a few jumpers. It's going to be very interesting to see if he can come on stronger down the stretch, as he has in previous years.

10m for half a season of good play

[Big Shot]

I'd think it's a combination of different things people already mentioned. The thing that stands out the most to me is he's banged up and got a bit of concussion.

[StatsMan99]

He's lacking confidence right now. You can tell in his body language.

LOL! I was wondering where you'd gone. We missed you for a couple days there Mr. "Demar Derozan is in the top 100 players in the league" maxpower88.

[StMikes31]

He is two inches too short.

[raps4589]

i cant beleive we gave him 10 mill a year

[OhMyBosh]

Not everyone has the benefit of spacing. He needs to learn how to make space for himself.

He's not a threat to blow by a defender without a screen. So any defender will just stay up in his chest because he'll just end up giving the ball back to Calderon after holding it for 5 seconds.

[MEDIC]

10m for half a season of good play

Haha. Hey Newf, your sig made me chuckle.

White nose guy.....

[Big Shot]

i cant beleive we gave him 10 mill a year

With BC, you'd never know what will happen next. Rumor is he will re-sign AA into a bigger contract based on his performance vs DD's.

[DellCurry4Life]

Posted a the same thing in a different thread, but more relevant to this one.

The ridiculous unjust expectations this franchise/fans put on players is whats wrong with Demar. Demar is not a top tier SG, no question about it. But instead of that being accepted and appreciating his strengths, he is criticized for what he is not. Part of this is due to the low-quality teams we have put out since 01 and part is due to poor coaching in the past.

If Demar was used properly (i.e. ran through screens in a Rip Hamilton Detroit style) I think we would all be much more appreciative as to what he brings. He could focus on simply being freed up by the team and focus on knocking down the mid-range jumper and/or driving at the basket. Instead, he/we expect to be able to give him the ball, he take his player 1 on 1 and him to be able to produce. It just isnt his game. But instead of maximizing his strength and minimizing his weaknesses (i.e. dribbling, isolating, etc.) the team sets him up for failure.

The only positive is that we seem to be shifting our focus to a more balanced team oriented approach which may help bring more appreciation for Demar's skills if we can successfully fill out this team. Im a fan of BPA during the draft, but taking Ross made sense from a system building perspective. As we were glaringly thin at one area.

If you want to look at this team and what it could be grown as you have a solid front court rotation of Jonas, Ed, Amir, even Bargnani if he is utilized as instant offense off the bench. At the 2/3 you have Demar/Terrence as a good starting point and at the point you have lowry/Calderon. Each part of this core can thrive under a team oriented approach. The missing part is something that we havent had since vince, a penetrating 2/3 that can get to the basket and beat his man off the dribble. If we can add this, we may have a balanced line-up that can compete following a team based approach (i.e. Pacers).

[Y0DA]

Nothing's wrong with him. He's a young player who is working on becoming more consistent, like most young players do.

[Y0DA]

If Demar was used properly (i.e. ran through screens in a Rip Hamilton Detroit style) I think we would all be much more appreciative as to what he brings. He could focus on simply being freed up by the team and focus on knocking down the mid-range jumper and/or driving at the basket. Instead, he/we expect to be able to give him the ball, he take his player 1 on 1 and him to be able to produce. It just isnt his game. But instead of maximizing his strength and minimizing his weaknesses (i.e. dribbling, isolating, etc.) the team sets him up for failure.

Derozan is not a Rip Hamilton/Reggie Miller type of player. He is terrible at using screens and cannot catch and shoot.

He is a Latrell Sprewell type of player; a slasher who needs to get to the rim on straight-line drives with the occasional post-up.

[MEDIC]

BC is always giving guys contracts based on what they "might" do in the future. How about letting a guy earn his contract. Especially when that player is going to be a RFA......

Has BC ever paid someone based on "potential" & had it work out (where you have a value contract down the road)?

Derozan still has time, but........we need a new GM. One that is a little more of a realist than a dreamer.

[Big Shot]

Has BC ever paid someone based on "potential" & had it work out (where you have a value contract down the road)?

Amir

[Raps in 4]

Nothing. He was never very good.

[mirrornick]

He played like an allstar in his first 20 games. Now he is in some slump. And AA has been taking more shats than DD, which could mean Casey wants his older players to score.

[Greg Stink]

Two reasons:

1) It's not worth the trouble to spoon-feed him, so we're not doing it anymore.

He still can't create anything off the bounce, which was foreseeable, and it's not worth running a 10-second play which takes another 10 seconds for our guys to arrange (when Jose gets accused of pounding) for an ok 2pt jump shooter who struggles to get separation or a rim-cut for a guy who doesn't know how to get calls or finish through contact if he manages to find it before it's too late. Demar's not getting calls is all on him.

And forget about changing personnel, we don't even have enough shooters or any stretch bigs to augment an ok post game which can be controlled by a bigger/smarter defender or nullified by a 2nd one because he gets stripped so easily and he can't pass. We had AB or were going tiny when he was putting up numbers, throwing out LOLK, Peaches, popping Amir, anything to space for him and it clearly wasn't worth it.

2) His awareness and off-ball work is still brutal.

As bad as it was as a rookie. How is he not opportunistic, at all? He never, ever catches his cover looking in the other direction and dives to the rim for a rebound or pass and he's left alone A LOT. Fields had done that more this season than Demar has in his entire career- Jose looks for that and feeds anybody alone underneath but Demar is dreaming, alone, outside. He gets nothing for himself without a play. He hasn't even improved his off-ball work when it IS his play. Defenders can tell it's his play because he's moving, and it's probably as easy to lock/trail Demar as it would be Aaron Gray. In his first season, it was, 'ok, he'll get it, then he'll be a dangerous off-ball player'. He hasn't gotten anything, and he's not.

In short, he's been working on the wrong things, trying to Kobefy his game, while he should have been perfecting his off-ball work and finishing. We all knew years ago that he was never going to be an iso player but he's the last to know. It's sad. I wonder if the kid is just a dummy.

[itbobby007]

Nothing. He was never very good.

[Neutral 123]

Spacing eh? thats it? i guess everyone here who said spacing really wants Andrea back loool jk

Andrea provides 'spacing'...

[MEDIC]

Has BC ever paid someone based on "potential" & had it work out (where you have a value contract down the road)?

Amir

You think Amir is a "value contract" (by that I mean earning less than market value)?

Amir is the only guy that I feel the contract simply worked out. Amir earns his contract. I have no problems with the money he makes. If he continues to improve & add things to his offense, then he may earn a Derozan like contract down the road. If he stays the same, then maybe a marginal increase. That's how you pay people.

You also have to look around the league & think "can I find someone to do what this role player does for much cheaper"?

Our problem is (& has been for a while) that we don't have an allstar on this roster (preferably two), so these guys get put into high level starting roles & we pay them as such.

You get yourself 2-3 allstars & the quality role players come at a cheaper price.

It's a rut that we've been in for a long time & management needs to find a way to climb out.

[maxpower88]

I don't get where people are coming from with this DeRozan was never a good player/DeRozan is a bad player business. He's been in a slump lately and people have completely forgotten about how well he was playing in the beginning of the season. In fact, he's been in a slump for less than a third of the time he's been playing well and suddenly he sucks.

Throughout his first 30 games:

30 GP, 18/5/2/1 on 44%, scoring 15+ 20 times. The FG% isn't great but those aren't bad player numbers.

Since then:

11 GP, 15/3.5/1.5/1 on 41%, scoring 15+ only 5 times.

It's clearly a confidence issue. People on this board have short attention spans though, and so of course there's suddenly an influx of "DeRozan was never good" comments.